With flood season upon us, it seemed like a good time to discuss the “Act Of God” defense to liability claims (specifically often used in personal injury or wrongful death cases), which I hear a lot of people mention. What exactly is an Act Of God, and under what circumstances can an Act Of God immunize someone from liability?

An Act Of God refers to anything that nature throws at us. Generally, you are talking about wind (including hurricanes and tornados) and water in all of its forms (floods, rain, snow, ice, etc.), but any natural force can be considered an Act Of God. Lightning is an Act Of God, and so is the forest fire started by the lightning that burns down your house. In personal injury and property damage matters, a defendant can be insulated from liability if the defendant can prove that the Act Of God was the sole cause of the injuries and damage to the plaintiff.

The “sole cause” requirement is where it gets tricky. There can be no human intervention by the defendant that contributed to the injuries or damage. For example, snow and ice would be considered Acts Of God. But there are many instances of liability of defendants in accidents involving snow or ice because something that the defendant did combined with the Act Of God to cause the accident. Perhaps the defendant was driving too fast for conditions on a snowy or icy road or did not remove snow or ice from a sidewalk or stairs.

With floods, two regular areas of liability concern failing to disclose the existence of a flood risk during the sale of home and government liability for failing to protect against a flood.

All terminations may be “wrongful” in the mind of the fired employee in the sense that it was “wrong” and unfair for the employer to fire them. But not all terminations are necessarily “wrongful” in a legal sense.

Iowa is an “at-will employment” state. That means that the employment relationship can be ended without prior notice or warning by the employer or the employee at any time and for any reason. This usually comes up for employees who have been fired. There is no general requirement that an employer have “good cause” before firing an employee. Nor is the employee entitled to any warnings that the employee’s job is in danger before being fired. There is no law that requires an employer to investigate the employee before making a termination decision or provide a written explanation of the reasons for the firing.

Iowa’s courts have carved out two general exceptions to the at-will employment law under which the termination may be wrongful. The most frequent exception is that an employee cannot be fired if the termination is in violation of public policy. That public policy commonly comes from state statutes or court decisions. The courts usually refer to such an employee as “protected,” meaning that the employee has done something that the employee has a right to do and is insulated from termination for engaging in that right. Examples of such protected activity include filing a workers’ compensation claim, unemployment claims, wage and overtime claims, and providing truthful testimony during a legal proceeding brought by another employee.

The other exception to the at-will employment rule is for an employee who has an employment agreement that sets forth the circumstances and manner in which the employee can be fired. In those cases, the employment contract will control on the question of whether the termination was wrongful.

There are other situations in which an employee’s termination may lead to liability against the employer. Of course, under various state and federal civil rights laws, it is illegal for an employer to fire someone because of that person’s sex, race, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, or pregnancy. There are also statutes that govern terminations in specific situations, such as employee drug and alcohol testing.